I probably would have gone to see M Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin in theaters when it first came out except that was the week I finally caught COVID and went into isolation. Sure, I could have gone any of the weeks after that, but then other new movies came out, and I usually hit stuff up the first week if at all. I mean, I had heard this was one of Shyamalan’s good ones. He only gets one good one out every couple of years it seems when he sticks to what he’s good at, namely odd B-movies that work best when he doesn’t try to get overly pretentious and keeps his director’s cameo to a minimum.
Then I realized I could wait for streaming. It wasn’t too long after I recovered when it popped up as an at-home rental, so I figured it would hit some service sooner or later. And lo and behold, it popped up on Peacock. Besides, I went out of my way to avoid spoilers on this one, and I can’t always claim that.
Andrew (Ben Aldridge), Eric (Jonathan Groff), and their young adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) are having a nice vacation trip at a remote cabin when four strangers show up. Seemingly led by the large slab of muscle Leonard (Dave Bautista), these strangers, each brandishing some sort of homemade weapons, quickly subdue the two adults but try to do so without causing serious harm. They claim that they are here to do a terrible task: apparently, one member of the family will need sacrifice themselves to stop the apocalypse. If they don’t make the decision soon, then the human race will die out quickly and violently. For each time they refuse, thousands will die in seemingly biblical disasters.
The story seems far-fetched, obviously. But the thing is, most of the strangers (with one noteworthy exception) seem rather nice all told. They just really believe this story they’ve told, and they don’t seem to want to be there. Leonard in particular is a very gentle man. Despite his size, he never shouts and rarely uses his physical stature to his advantage. Plus, there are strange things happening in the world. Could it all be a coincidence? Could the four strangers be telling the truth? And whether they are speaking the truth or not, will Andrew or Eric believe them?
To start, yes, this was a good Shyamalan movie. Yes, there’s still the oddly stilted dialogue that often doesn’t sound quite natural, but Shyamalan does a few things well. He’s got a nice eye for composition even if his characters often talk like no human being has ever talked before. But the suspense here still feels earned. There’s a level of uncertainty around the movie, one that arguably never really goes away. Are these people on the level? They are insistent that they can’t or won’t hurt the family themselves, but they are more than willing to keep the family there until Andrew and Eric make a decision. The movie builds good tension pretty much from the moment in the opening minutes when the massive Leonard walks out of a forest to say a few words to Wen as she is sitting alone catching grasshoppers.
And it helps that Bautista gives such a fine performance. He may have started off as a pro-wrestler, but he’s really branched out as an actor. Much like fellow wrestler-turned-actor John Cena, he’s shown a remarkable amount of range, and he really makes this movie what it is. There’s just this underlying niceness to the man that belies his size, and he makes it easy to maybe believe that he’s telling the truth despite the outlandishness of his story. It’s the kind of performance that really makes me want to see what else he can do. It’s actually enough to see this movie just for that one performance. It’s a good movie to start, and Bautista makes it even better.
Grade: B+
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